Ed’s Books offering second short story contest

Earlier this year, Ed’s Books and More sponsored a short story contest and received 35 entries from all over Cape Breton Island.

The winners divided up all of the money taken in as entry fees, they did public readings of their stories on Paul MacDougall’s Coast radio program, “The Good Sentence,” and also at the Governor’s Book Pub, and they all had their stories published in a special edition of The Community Post.

This week, Ed Gillis, owner of Ed’s Books, place a sign on the sidewalk in front of his shop on Sydney’s Charlotte Street, announcing the contest was returning for a second year.

“It was fun,” Gillis explains. “There is nothing local like this. There were some people who would never have entered a short story except that it was local.”

I heard last year’s winners read at Governor’s. They all presented polished, enjoyable stories and in a variety of genres so I am looking forward to this year’s winners.

For anyone wanting to enter this year, here are the rules.

The piece has to be 2,000 words long and only fiction will be accepted: no non-fiction, memoirs, or poetry (sorry). Entrants must deliver a typed manuscript to the store at 446 Charlotte Street, Sydney. A $10 entrance fee must be included for each submitted story (writers can enter multiple works but must include ten dollars for each story entered). The deadline for submission is Tuesday, February 28, 2017.

Winners will be announced after the panel of local judges (whose identities will remain forever anonymous) have read all the entries and picked the winners. (Watch this space.)

For further information, visit the bookstore or call Ed at 902-564-2665.

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The Highland Arts Theatre returns with its annual production of “A Christmas Carol” at the Bentinck Street, Sydney, venue running 8 p.m. nightly from Monday, November 28 to Friday, December 2.

After a three year run, the HAT is retiring the show for an indefinite time, so this will be the last chance to see it for a while.

Most of the cast from the first two years will be returning with some new faces, including popular local performers like Chris Corbett, Phonse Walsh, and George MacKenzie returns as the irascible, contemptible, ultimately redeemable “Scrooge.”

This Charles Dickens tale was adapted and directed by Wesley J. Colford, and includes plenty of seasonal tunes musically directed by Barb Stetter and wondrously choreographed by Cynthia Vokey.

And while you’re at the show check out the numerous ticket packages the HAT offering for its upcoming 2017 Winter/Spring season. To encourage theatregoers to spread the joy among family and friends as Christmas gifts, some packages offer a 50 per cent discount for the entire season. Try to “Bah, humbug!” that deal.

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On Wednesday, December 7, 7 p.m., Third Person Press and the McConnell Library are hosting the launch of “Christmas Stalkings,” a collection of Christmas ghost stories.

These stories were originally written and read at the McConnell over the past five years for “Gaudy Night” in commemoration of a similar yearly reading given by Canadian writing icon, Robertson Davies while he was Master of Massey College. The readings also served as fundraisers for the Cape Breton Regional Library’s Seniors’ Reading programs and part of the proceeds from this collection will go to those same programs.

These original spooky tales were written by Todd Pettigrew, Scott Sharplin, Jenn Tubrett, and, ahem, me, and published by Third Person Press, Cape Breton's own publisher of speculative fiction.

Along with readings from the anthology by four of the five contributors, there will a couple of new stories, musical offerings by the Endnotes, refreshments, and, of course, copies of the book on sale (and for signing by the authors).

Even if you don’t buy multiple copies for Christmas gifts (and why wouldn’t you?), this event, like all events sponsored by the Cape Breton Regional Library, is free (Happy Holidays!) and open to all of the public.

Ken Chisholm is a Sydney playwright, arts commentator, singer/songwriter, and storyteller. He next stage appearance will be reprising his “Old Joe” character in the Highland Arts Theatre production of “A Christmas Carol” this week.